Born: 1967 (as Stephen Thompson)
Episodes Broadcast: 2011, 2013-2014

London-born Steve Thompson was an ardent Doctor Who fan as a child: aged ten, he attended a party dressed as a Voc Robot from 1977's The Robots Of Death. He obtained a degree in mathematics from the University of Warwick, and spent the next twelve years as a teacher at Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames, London, eventually becoming head of maths. By this time, Thompson had married barrister Lorna Skinner. In 2000, he left his job to care for their newborn son, the first of five children. Thompson began to dabble in writing, and the result was a play called Damages. It received interest from the Bush Theatre, where it was performed in 2004 to rave reviews, earning Thompson the Meyer-Whitworth Award for new playwrights. He became writer-in-residence at the Bush Theatre and his next work, Whipping It Up, transferred to the West End.

The success of Thompson's plays led to work in television, starting with two episodes of Doctors in 2005, followed by scripts for The Whistleblowers and Mutual Friends. Meanwhile, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss were setting up their Arthur Conan Doyle adaptation Sherlock when Moffat attended a performance of Whipping It Up. In need of a third writer for the show, he decided to invite Thompson aboard. With Moffat also in charge of Doctor Who, it was perhaps inevitable that Thompson would soon find himself writing for Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor as well. His first contribution was the pirate adventure The Curse Of The Black Spot in 2011, followed by 2013's Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS. With Peter Capaldi having taken over as the Twelfth Doctor, Thompson and Moffat collaborated on 2014's Time Heist.

By this point, Thompson had also written for programmes such as Silk, the revival of Upstairs Downstairs, and Sinbad. In 2016, he conceived the period drama Jericho, for which he was an executive producer and lead writer. Thompson then contributed to Deep State before developing Vienna Blood, based upon Frank Tallis' Liebermann Papers. In the Twenties, he co-created the historical drama Leonardo with Frank Spotnitz.